Typewriter



i. Crane,

TYPEWRITER M. L, CRANE E AL Filed y 19. 1958 March 21 Patented Mar. 21, 1939 'VUNITED, STATES PATENT OFFICE.

TYPEWRITER Merrell L. Crane and Gilbert W. Fisher, Chicago, 111., assignors to Lawrence J. West, Chicago,

Application May 19, 1938, Serial No. 208,858

' 15 Claims. 3(01. 197-84) Our invention relates to improvements in type- Writing machines for regulating and varying the spacing between the characters printed by the machine.

The invention provides anew form of rack by means of which the'spacing is variable for facilitating the justifying of lines of typewritten material.

The primary object of the invention, therefore, is to provide a new form of. rack which may very conveniently be adjusted at the will of the operator to vary the length of the line. which a given number of characters will occupy.

Another. object of the invention is to provide a new form of rack for the above purpose which nevertheless will be simple and inexpensive to produce, install and use.

A particular object of the invention is to provide a single rack which is extensible longi- I tudinally for the purpose of varying the spacing between the typed characters in 'a line.

A further object of the invention is to provide a rack which may be so constructed as to provide, in addition to the'justifying functions, a, cushioning effect whichhas various advantages, such as the diminishing of vibration, noise and wear.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will be alluded to in this specification or will become apparent from .a perusal of the same.

In the vdrawing:

Fig. 1 is a top plan view of a typewriter equipped in accordance with this invention, only such parts as are necessary -to an understanding of the invention being shown therein;

Fig. 2 is a detail view of my new form of rack; and

the rack.

of the typewriter, while 2 indicates the movable carriage on which is mounted a platen 3. The carriage is movable on suitable tracks as is common in typewriter construction, but as the details thereof are not a part of this invention, they are not described herein.

In typewriters of the character shown, the typewriter progresses during the operation of the .keys under the control of an escapement mechanism, the escapement wheel 4 being shown. The usual pawls for controlling the escapement wheel need not here be shown. Mounted on the same shaft with the escapement wheel and rotating therewith is a small pinion gear 5, which in typewriters of usual construction meshes with the teeth of an ordinary rigid straight rack bar.

The numeral I indicates generally the frame According to our invention, in place of the usual rack bar we provide, in the form of the invention shown in Figs. 1 and 2, a spiral spring 6 which is preferably mounted so as to surround rather snugly a cylindrical mandrel I, the latter being secured to the carriage. In' the embodiment herein shown, an arm 8 is secured to the mandrel at one end thereof, while another arm 9 is secured to the opposite end of the mandrel, these two arms being connected by a longitudinal bar H which in turn is supported by a pair of brackets l2 and I3, the'latter being supported and secured on a rigid member M which 'is hinged, as shown at I5 and 16, to the portion I! of the carriage frame. Hence as the carriage moves from left to right the mandrel and the spiral spring rack supported thereon move with the carriage, while the pinion gear 5 rolls along in mesh with the spiral spring.

This spring may be secured in a simple m'anner by passing one end l8 through a hole in the mandrel and attaching the other end l9 through a swivel 2| to a jack screw 22. The jack screw is threaded through a bracket 23 supported on themandrel. By means of a handle 24 the jack screw may be rotated to vary the total length of the spring. The spring should be'so constructed that the spacings between the convolutions of its coils will beuniform.

In the typewriter shown in the drawing, the

pinion gear 5 is mounted on a shaft 25 which is supported in a stationary bearing (not shown) on the main frame of the typewriter. By means of levers 26 or 21 pivoted at 28 and '29 the rack may be lifted out of engagement with the pinion gear, the supporting members for the rack pivoting about the hinges I5 and i6.

Shouldit be desired, a clamping member 3| may be brought into engagement with the spiral spring to press the latter against the mandrel in order to dampen or prevent any longitudinal movement or vibration of the spring, should a weak spring be employed. However, in most instances, this clamping device will not be needed or desired, as a sufiiciently strong spring will be employed and the scarcely perceptible longitudinal motion of the spring under ordinary operating conditions will advantageously serve to cushion the stopping of the typewriter carriage as it starts and stops under the action of the keys, thus reducing noise and vibration of the entire machine.

While a jack screw is shown herein for extending the spring, it is obvious that some other of the spring may -provide for the desired number of spaces per line of a given length. For general use the spacing between the convolutions of the spring will preferably correspond with the spaces marked on the gauge 32. A dog 33 will then be engaged in any suitable manner by rotation or otherwise into the space between two convolutions of the spring near the left end of the limit of travel of the spring rack with reference to the pinion 5. As shown in the drawing, the dog 33 is adjustable longitudinally to engage the spring at approximately the position where the pinion 5 would engage the spiral spring rack when the typewriter is in position for beginning the lines at theleft hand margin of thetypewritten material. Hence when successive lines of variable length are being written and the spring variably extended for the justifying" of each line, all of this variable extension takes place to the right of the dog 33 so that the vertical alignment of the left hand margin is not disturbed. After a page of material has been typed and it is desired to justify the right hand margins of all of the lines, the numberof spaces and characters in the longest line will be determined and adopted as the maximum length of the justified lines. The spaces and characters in the other shorter lines will then be counted or otherwise determined and as each of these lines is being retyped on the new sheet the spring rack will be extended or contracted so that when the number of spaces and characters in each line has been run off, all of them. will have their right hand margins in register with the original'longest line.

To facilitate setting of the jack screw foreach successive line, there may be used, if desired, a scale 34, suitably supported on the bar Ii, and a pointer 35 carried by the swivel 2|.

Fig. 3 shows a modified form of an extensible rack, consisting of a pantograph anchored at the end 36 and extensible by means of a jack screw 31 connected with the opposite end 38. The lower ends of the cries-crossed link members, such as 39 and- 4|, are formed to provide rack teeth such as 42 which mesh with a pinion gear 5', the latter being secured on the same shaft as the escapement wheel. v The lower pivotal pin 43 on each pair of links in the pantograph preferably extends into a guide groove 44 in a bar 45 so that as the pantograph is extended or conemployed will function in the same manner.

It should be understood that the construction shown in the drawing has been selected for the purpose of illustrating the invention and the manner of using it, but that the invention is not limited to the particular details of construction shown nor is it limited to application to a typewriter of the general construction shown in the drawing. The frame, carriage, and the position of the rack shown in Fig. 1 is illustrative of a current model of Remington typewriter equipped with a rack made in accordance with my invention. Obviously, however, my rack may be applied to other makes of typewriters in substitution for the inextensible racks with which they are now provided.

It is found that a spiral spring of ordinary construction, that is, having a circular crosssection is satisfactory for the purposes of this invention. However, if desired, a spring having a different cross-section may be employed.

It is furthermore obvious that either form of extensible rack shown in the drawing will cooperate equally well with some other control mechanism than the escapement wheel and pinion gear shown in the drawing. For example, such a control mechanism as employs a pawl directly engaging the rack.

Furthermore, the novel features of the invention are capable of considerable variation without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the claims which follow.

Having shown and described our invention, we'claim:

1. In a typewriting machine, a frame, a carriage movable thereon, and means for controlling the movement of the carriage including an escapement mechanism having a toothed member for engagement with a rack for holding the carriage at any operative position and a longitudinally extensible rack engageable with said member and adjustable for varying the spacing between characters printed by the machine.

2. In a typewriting machine, a frame, a carriage movable thereon, a longitudinally extensible rack member, and an escapement mechanism including a toothed element engageable with said member for controlling the movement of saidcarriage-said member being adjustable in length for varying the spacing between characters printed by the machine.

3. In a typewriting machine, a frame, a carriage movable thereon, a rack member longitudinally extensible provided with uniformly spaced projections the spacing of which is uniformly variable by adjusting the length of the rack member, and an escapement mechanism including a toothed element engageable with said projections forcontrolling the movement of said carriage.

4. In a typewriting machine, a frame, a carriage movable thereon, a rack member having uniformly spaced projectionsthereon constructed to be variably extensible for changing the spacing between said projections, and an escapement mechanism-including a toothed element engageable with said projections for controlling the movement of said carriage.

5. In a typewriting machine, a frame, a carriage movable thereon, a longitudinally extensible rack member having uniformly spaced projections connected together and so constructed and arranged that movement of the extremities of the member toward or away from each-other decreases or increases respectively the spacing between said projections in a uniform manner,

and an escapement mechanism including a toothed element engageable with said projections for controlling the movement of said carriage.

6. In a typewriting machine, a frame, a car-- ment 'engageable with said portions.

8. In a typewriting machine, a frame, a carriage movable thereon, a spiral spring and means for varying the length of the same to vary in a uniform manner the spacing between the convolutions of the spring, and means for controlling the motion of the carriage including a toothed element engageable with the convolutions of the spring.

9. In a typewriting machine, a frame, a carriage movable thereon, a rigid bar and a spiral spring surrounding the same, means for varying the length of the spring to vary in a uniform manner the spacing between the convolutions of the spring, and means for controlling the motion of the carriage including a toothed element engageable with the convolutions of the spring.

10. In a typewrlting machine, a frame, a cairiage movable thereon, a pantograph device provided with uniformly spaced projections. serving as a rack member, means for extending or contracting said device to vary in a uniformmanner the spacing between said projections, and means for controlling the motion of the carriage, including a toothed element engageable with said projections.

- 11. In a typewriting machine, a frame. acarriage movable thereon, a pantograph device provided with uniformly spaced projections serving asa rack member, means for extending or, contracting said device to vary in a uniform manner the spacing between said projections, means for retaining said projections constantly in the same plane of movement during contraction and expansion of the pantograph device, and means for controlling the motion of the carriage including a toothed element engageable with said projections.

12. In a typewriting machine, a frame, a carriage movable thereon, a spiral spring and means for varying the length of the same to vary in a uniform manner the spacing between the convolutions of the spring, means for controlling the motion of the carriage including a toothed element engageable with the convolutions of the spring, and means for restraining longitudinal vibration of the spring during normal operation of the carriage.

13. In a typewrlting machine, a frame, a carriage movable thereon, a spiral spring and means for varying the length of the same to vary in a uniform manner the spacing between the convolutions of the spring, means for controlling the motion of the carriage including a toothed element engageable' with the convolutions of the spring, and means engageable with the spring selectively at any pre-determined point near the left hand end of the spring for limiting expansion of the spring to that portion lying to the right of the point of engagement.

14. In a typewriting machine, a frame, a carriage movable thereon, a longitudinally resiliently extensible member having uniformly spaced portions the spacing of which is uniformly variable by selectively adjusting the length of said member, means for controlling the movement of the carriage including a toothed,,element engageable with said portions, and means for restraining longitudinal vibration of said portions during the normal operation of the carriage.

15. In a typewriting machine, a frame, a carriage movable thereon, a longitudinally extensible member having uniformly spaced portions the spacing of which is uniformly variable by selectively adjusting the length of the member, means for controlling the movement of the carriage including a toothed element engageable with said portions, and means operatively connectible with said member for selectively determining the position on the member from which its variable extension to the right may take place.

LERREIL L. CRANE. GILBERT W. FISHER. 

